The Wonder of Your Love - By Beth Wiseman Page 0,8

to help.”

She cut her eyes at him. “I assure you, I’ve tried everything.”

Eli sighed, unsure what to say. Katie Ann started to cry again.

“I don’t know what to do.” She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “He just won’t stop crying.” She shook her head as she continued to rock Jonas. “He did this most of the night too, and I’m so”—she closed her eyes for a moment, then looked down at the screaming child—“tired.”

Eli squatted down beside her. “May I?” He reached his hands out toward the baby, but Katie Ann stiffened and sat taller.

“No. I’m sure you won’t be able to help.” She sniffled as she shook her head.

Eli couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was, even with her eyes swollen from little sleep and tiny lines that feathered from the corner of each eye.

He kept his arms out as he spoke, easing into a chair beside her. “I’ve raised six children on my own for the past seventeen years. I’ve learned a thing or two.” He raised his brows, and Katie Ann reluctantly handed over the unhappy little fellow.

“There, there,” Eli whispered, lowering the little one onto his lap, faceup . . . and still screaming. He slipped one hand under the baby’s neck, and with his other hand, he took two fingers and traced them from below Jonas’s breastbone all the way down his tummy, applying a small amount of pressure. When he could feel the top of the child’s diaper beneath his blue onesie, he moved his hand in a circular motion back and forth across the child’s abdomen. In less than a minute, Jonas had stopped crying.

Eli smiled at Katie Ann, whose jaw hung low.

“How did you know to do that?” Her eyes held a glint of wonder.

Eli was surprised at how nice it felt to hold a newborn. He thought about his son’s wife, Laura Jane, who would be delivering next month. It would be nice to have another baby around. On a part-time basis, of course.

He handed Jonas to his mother, then shrugged. “A little something I learned when my daughter Maureen was that age. She struggled with a gassy tummy too.” He swallowed, recalling the hardship of losing his wife while she was delivering Maureen.

Katie Ann cuddled her child in her arms, smiling down at the little one. After a few moments, she looked at Eli. Her eyes grew sharp and assessing, and with what seemed like resistance, she thanked him.

“You’re welcome. Does he get fussy like that a lot?”

“Ya. He does.”

Eli stood up and rubbed his hands together. “Rub some baby oil in your hands like this, until it gets warm. Then do what I just did with your palm against the baby’s bare skin.” He grinned. “Works every time.”

Katie Ann stiffened. “I should have known that, I suppose.” She pressed her lips together as she stood up, and Eli wished he hadn’t boasted.

“You learn these things with experience.” He smiled again, but she did not. Eli reprimanded himself for being prideful, but there was no denying that experience played a big hand when he’d raised his children, and sometimes he was proud of what he’d accomplished on his own. Jake and Hannah were already six- and five-years-old when Sarah died, but he still had a three-year-old, two-year-old, one-year-old, and baby Maureen to raise.

“I should get back to the wedding.” She placed the baby up on her shoulder. “Danki again.”

“You’re welcome.” He wasn’t sure he was winning any points with this woman. No matter, he decided. He waited a minute, then rejoined the service.

KATIE ANN DABBED at her eyes when Emily and David took their vows. She couldn’t think of a couple more deserving of such happiness, and she knew that everyone in the room was thinking the same. They might be young, but they had both lived through much. David had nearly died six years earlier, his life saved only through a kidney transplant. And before Emily’s family moved from Middlefield to Canaan last year, Emily had suffered a rape and had to endure the trial of her assailant.

Katie Ann was glad that they had fallen in love and had each other to lean on. Be good to each other, she said silently.

Ivan’s faced flashed in her mind’s eye, and memories of their own wedding danced in her head. She never would have imagined that he would run off with another woman, leaving her to raise a baby on her own. A baby he didn’t even know